‘We never knew their first names,’ Olivia said. ‘We only knew them as Mr and Mrs Miller.’

‘What was their address?’

‘We don’t know. We wrote via the school. Eliza, we met them so briefly. We were kids. And after – after Jeannie died, we didn’t even know how to contact them.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me any of this back then?’

‘You’d just lost your mother. We had no way of knowing how they’d react if we did find them, put you in touch with them. They might have sent you away. That’s what Jeannie always feared, that —’

‘I’ve always had grandparents. Grandparents I might have met.’ Again, she looked from one to the other. ‘Did they even know about me?’

‘We don’t know.’

‘You never asked Mum?’

‘Yes, but Eliza, it was sometimes hard to know if Jeannie was telling the truth.’

‘But they were the family I could have had. And you still didn’t tell me about them.’

Olivia tried to explain again. ‘We had no choice, Eliza.’

‘Your mother made us promise not to say anything to you,’ Maxie said.

‘My mother is dead.’ The words tore out of her. She’d shocked them. Shocked herself. ‘How could you have visited me, year after year, spoken to me every week, and lied to me? When I could have had a family? When I could have had people who loved me, looked after me. My mother’s parents. How could you have done this?’

‘Eliza —’

Olivia stepped forward. ‘Eliza, please, I know it’s a shock, but we need to explain —’

Eliza was trembling. ‘There’s nothing to explain. I had a family and you didn’t tell me.’

Maxie tried. ‘Eliza, Jeannie and her parents hadn’t spoken in years. Even before you were born.’

‘That was their business. Between them. They were still my grandparents. I could have tried to have a relationship with them. Do I have aunts? Uncles?’

‘We don’t think so.’

‘As far as we know, Jeannie was an only child.’

‘As far as you know.’ She stood up. ‘I have to go home. I have to find them.’

‘Eliza —’

‘Can’t you see that? Can’t you understand how this might feel for me?’

‘We’ve worried about it all your life, darling.’

Eliza flinched at the darling.

Olivia noticed. ‘Eliza, we did what Jeannie asked us to do,’ she said.

‘No,’ Eliza said. ‘You made a decision not to tell me, even after Mum died.’

‘We promised her.’

‘She died, Maxie. The promise should have died with her.’

‘Please, Eliza. Please try to stay calm.’